Romania 'unsure on CIA flights'

President Traian Basescu conceded yesterday that CIA flights may have passed through Romania but said authorities were not able to determine which American agency was piloting US planes.

Planes belonging to the US government have landed at Mihail Kogalniceanu airport without it being possible for Romanian authorities to identify which agency they were from, Mr Basescu said on news channel Realitatea TV.

The Mihail Kogalniceanu base, near the Black Sea port city of Constanta, was used by the US to move troops and equipment during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US military withdrew its remaining forces from Romania in June 2003. Asked whether CIA flights had landed in Romania, Mr Basescu said: "I have never rejected this reality but we reject any allegation that under [US-Romanian] cooperation human rights were not respected."

Allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al-Qaida suspects in Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe were first reported in November last year. Human Rights Watch also said it had evidence that the CIA had moved suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.

Suspicion fell on the Kogalniceanu base and Poland's Szymany airport after Human Rights Watch said it had records indicating aircraft with links to the CIA landed repeatedly at both in 2001-2004.